Smile, Jesus loves you!

At the end of a year people think about a lot of things: what happened and what is going to happen next year? There is a lot of sadness and a lot of unfulfilled things, but also some sense of accomplishment and achievement as well as hope for the future. We are creatures of hope, otherwise we won't carry on.
A great secret is thanksgiving. The root word of thanks in Greek, is 'think' - so if we think a bit we have a lot to give thanks for! Out of thanksgiving the new goals and objectives should arise naturally. The most important thing is to think of others as well, not just yourself.
I once asked Hilton, my youngest son, at the end of the U/11 rugby season, 'what was your greatest moment on the rugby field this season?' Without hesitation he said, 'when I beat the Sacs flyhalf and gave that pass to Ty to score his try!' I must admit I was somewhat surprised. I would have thought that his greatest moment was when he kicked the winning conversion in the last minute to win the game for his team! But he was not thinking of his own achievement but of his involvement in the team!
Jesus said we can learn much from little children and so I learned!
In this time of Christmas people are thinking about buying presents for others. It is a good thing, although we should have learned by now that we ought to have good will throughout the year and not only at the end!
A thank you here and there, a kind word to people who do dull, routine work such as cashiers and people at toll gates, could just brighten up someone's day. A word of cheer, a joke shared, a piece of encouragement at the right time, a smile - these things cost us nothing and sometimes they are the greatest gifts!
Let your friendliness be known, Christ is at hand. This apostolic command has much substance in it. When we let our friendliness be known, people will experience Christ, close at hand.
Well, sometimes we have to be friendly to ourselves as well. We all do stupid things and even things we are ashamed of and wonder why on earth did I do it? It is painful to be reminded just how human we are at times. But I think these things are allowed to happen so that we do not think of ourselves more highly as we ought to think. Pride is an over estimation of oneself and under estimation of others. Inferiority is just the opposite. Humility is therefore a balanced, truthful estimation of one's self.
But the problem is that most people do not know who they are! Especially christians who go to seminars to discover their purpose in life! I am amazed how gullible believers are! They try so hard to believe that they are easily deceived! Faith is not an effort - it is a gift! But because preachers make merchandise out of people believers are led astray by cunniningly devised schemes and programmes that eventually make slaves out of the redeemed of the lord!
Oh, we simply have to learn to be thankful and to trust the Lord for tomorrow.
The old adage is still true today: I don't know about tomorrow, but I know who holds tomorrow!
So, saint, think for a while what is there to be thankful about during the past year and begin to place your trust in God for what lies ahead. This should round the year off and you will find that He always crowns the year with goodness!
Smile, Jesus loves you!

What's in a friendship?

There are friendships that last and there are friendships that don't. What's the difference? It's hard to tell. But there has to be some sort of heart connection in order for any friendship to survive. I have found in my life that some friends are only for a short period of time, but there are some that last a life time. The ones that last are the ones you should make a special effort to retain. It is not so much how you service the friendship that makes it work, but the heart felt attitude towards someone.
A friend is not a necessarily perfect. A friend has faults. You accept the friend with the faults.
I once sat in a restaurant somewhere in America and the African American waitress slammed four giant glasses of ice cold water onto the wooden table. I was irritated by all the water on the table as the condensation slid down the glasses and onto the table. I called the waitress back.
'Look at the table: it's wet! And to tell you the truth I didn't even order the four glasses of water!'
'Well, you get the wet with the water, baby!' she replied and shrugged my complaint off with a wave of her hand.
Later on someone told me why you get water the moment you sit down in a restaurant in America: because someone choked to death in a restaurant and because there was no water on the table the family sued the restuarant, made millions and caused the restaurant owner to close down because he went bankrupt! Since then you get the wet with the water - whether you like it or not!
In a friendship you get the wet with the water as well!
Jesus called some ordinary guys to come and learn from him for a few years and then there was a twist in the tale. At a certain point in time, in John 15 we read about it, he said to them, ' I no longer call you servants, but my friends!' And then He qualified his requirements for friendship: 'you listen to what I tell you and you do what I ask you!' Simple! A friend always makes an effort to do what you ask, no matter how busy they are, and also knows when to listen and when to speak.
Plato described friendships that work only one was as a burden: the one who sees and advantage in a friendship is only a friend as long as he can take advantage. When the advantage is no longer on his side, he breaks the friendship and hates the one who did not give him what he wanted! I have been disillusioned by such friendships until I reread Plato again. ( I studied drama, languages and philosophy at UCT).
Well, there you are and there you have it - some thoughts for the holiday season about friendship. Think through on it and see whether you can determine who your real friends are!
Last year I experienced one of the high lights of my life: a few of my university friends met together in the south of France to reminisce under the Mediterranean sky for a week. And what a week it was! It reunited the friends after 35 years and each one told his story - some stories made us laugh and some made us cry, but we have been in contact every since and we are planning a get together in the USA this year when one of the guys turn 60!
In closing, let me say this, the best friend to have is Jesus...he will hear you when you call, he will keep you when you fall, and he is never too busy to be there for you! Try Him if you never have - it has divine dividents!

Ketchup? Of course sir!

I sat in a restaurant in Benin City, at the Plaza hotel, mind-you, but it is not the kind you might expect in the good ol' USA! Here the only American thing is how they greet you: ' Yuh ah wulcum suh!' Everyone says it: from the security guard at the boom gate, to the receptionist, to the waitress, and they say it every time they see you. After a week you begin to accept the fact that you are welcomed!
So as I sat, waiting for my belated breakfast (you wait quite long for any orders, it is African time as far as everything is concerned including food on the menu) they brought my omelette, flat as a pancake. There were hints of ham and tomato. No cheese today. I wondered if I should roll it up or add some flavour and after due deliberation chose the latter as the better option.
'Any tomato sauce here?' I enquired of the waiter.
' No,' came the reply.
'Any kind of sauce?'
'We have ketchup.'
'Ok, I'll have the ketchup if you don't have any tomato sauce!'
'Yuh uh wulcum suh!'
It took a while for the ketchup bottle to arrive. I thought of a ditty we used to say at table: 'shake oh shake the ketchup bottle: first nothing will come and then a lottle!' The waiter finally arrived with the bottle of tomato sauce - at least that is what is written on the label. I tried to take it from him, but he seemed quite possessive and withdrew the bottle, informing me in no uncertain terms that he would pour the ketchup on my food. That he did - he unscrewed the top and poured in onto my flat omelette in no small measure! And then, this is the crux of the story: he proceeded ceremoniously to lick the top of the bottle clean with his protruding tongue!
My eyes were riveted on the ritual - surely it is a ritual because it was done in such style and audacity, I gathered that he had at least done this a thousand times before. There was no hesitation, no qualms, no inhibitions, no fear of man!
He closed the bottle with the lid. It was clean. Licked clean. And now, my eyes slowly lowered to my plate and my stomach turned...I had doubts, lots of them, and qualms, overwhelmed by them, and I was inhibited as well, but my fear was not the fear of man, but the fear of the ketchup that was poured from a previously licked tomato sauce bottle.
And all the other waitresses observed and watched as if to determine if this white man from the deep south would be man enough to stomach the sauces from this part of the world.
I took a deep breath and raised my knife and fork as a good soldier would, said, goodbye cruel world and plunged into my omelette, with such dexterity that before anyone could say Jack Rabbit I had consumed the entire helping and licked my own lips clean. I did not need any help doing that! No Sir, I was man enough to lick my own lips. If a man could not lick the communal ketchup bottle clean, then the least a man can do is lick his own lips! That I did, with aplomb!
'Did yuh enjoy yuh meeel Suh?'
'Yes, I did. And thanks for the ketchup!'
'Yuh uh wulcum Suh!'
I have never in my life seen a cleaner ketchup bottle or tomato sauce one either!
The next morning I ordered oats. Yea, oats, the stuff horses eat. Its very good for the digestion they say. I convinced myself that I needed no ketchup for the oats porridge. The waiter approached me after the oats: ' Yuh not havin omelette tuhday, Suh?'
'Not today, no!'
'Yuh wulcum Suh!'
As I strolled out of the punishment camp of a restaurant, I thought to myself, not today, not tomorrow and not ever again! My thoughts were so loud in my head that I turned around to see if anyone else heard what I was thinking! But they all went on their merry way doing their chores, waiting for the next prey to ask for tomato sauce.
Yea, a cruel place, Africa! One has to walk silently in the jungle...and bring your own ketchup bottle through customs!
Yea, this is based on a true event. There are more instalments of this nature awaiting the brave blog reader!

Just so wonderful to know

So wonderful to know
By Andre Pelser
(A song composed after a Sunday night service in Cape Town)

Oh it’s so wonderful to know
That someone loves me so
It’s so marvellous to know
That someone loves me so

It’s not an old fashioned love song
It’s oh so real to me
It’s not an old fashioned love song
It’s so real to me

Oh the love of God
Is real to me
Oh the love of God
Is real to me

It’s so marvellous just to know
He loved me first
It’s so marvellous to know
That He loved me first

It makes me feel secure
It makes my heart pure
Just to know He loves me
It makes me feel secure
It makes my heart so pure
Just to know that Jesus loves me
Love so divine and it is mine

I know I don’t deserve it
But I’ll take it anyhow
It’s not just an old fashioned love song
No, it’s real to me right now

Oh, it’s so marvellous to know
That He loves me so
He gave His only Son to die for me
Oh it’s wonderful to know

Save the Whale

'Mazing! (as Jackie Chan would say) how people would feel consciencious about things they can do absolutely nothing about, somethings like, 'Save the Southern Wale' or global warming that very few individuals even have a clue about. There are those wealthy individuals who would even contribute to causes that sound worthwhile for the planet, such as O3 solutions to the O-zone and the world raises billions to do aids research.
When we prayed for a prostitute who had aids and three physicians confirmed that she was cured, we wrote a letter to The Cape Times to say, God can do something about aids, for free! The letter was replied to on the front page the following day! In fact we were on the street posters on every light pole in the city streets: 'pastor gives false hope to aids victim!' Unbelievable but absolutely true.
The world would much rather believe the lie and keep on spending global fortunes to preserve the lie than to believe the truth that is gratis.
This was the case with Jesus. When he died and rose again, the soldiers were embarrassed because two angels broke the seal and rolled away the stone that was on the grave and they could do sweet blow all about it. When they reported this to their superiors and to the chief priests, the religious leaders concocted and paid for a lie that is still spread among Jews and other unbelievers, even to this day! They paid the soldiers a handsome sum of money to go and tell everyone that Jesus' disciples came at night and stole his body away while he slept, implying that he never really died. They also promised to protect this lie and if anyone told the governor about the soldier's bribe they would appease him. This is commonly reported among the Jews until this day!
How sad that money can preserve a lie! How sad that people prefer to believe the lie!
You see it everywhere, in schools, in business, in churches, in sport, in music competitions, in tournaments, in award ceremonies...there are associations and secret societies that preserve the lies they believe in and they make sure that there are 'soldiers' who would be prepared to spread their lies for a large sum of money.
How about this: a young man told me about a new job that he had taken up, how the previous guy was given a large sum of money to 'take the rap' on behalf of the top directors in order to protect them from public disgrace and so that the company could continue after a giant scam was exposed that could have ruined them. The man gladly retired after being singled out as the only person responsible for the corruption and lived happily ever after! Now it is the young man's job to clean up the mess.
These people exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship adn serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. Therefore God has given them over to a debvased mind to do those things which are not fitting being filled with all unrighteousness...undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. Those who practice such things are deserving of death but also those who approve of those who practice these evil deeds.
Come with me to some places I go to and do missionary work, at the airport or in the street, and you will see how bribery and corruption has become an acceptable life style. No wonder the judgment of God is upon the nations of the world today.
As we learn to judge ourselves, we would do well, to judge ourselves according to the written word of God, The Bible, and I am sure as we reform the world around us will reform as well. That is a start to changing the world...at least!

Speech Gives Us Away

George Bernard Shaw said that only a small percentage of people contribute to the life force. He obviously included himself as an author. He had his set ideas about life and how to live it. It is clearly seen in the musical My Fair Lady where a conceited English gentleman by the name of Higgins transform a lowly flower girl into a posh lady by correcting the way she speaks. It is beautiful and very entertaining and one of my favourites.
In this account lies some seeds of reform that can bring about change. Mr. Higgins is an astute student of phonetics. He recognizes any English accent and can write it down in his notebook phonetically.
Peter was caught out at the fireside when a little servant girl accosted him with the fact that he was one of the disciples of Jesus. He denied it but eventually his speech gave him away. You sound like one of Jesus' followers. I always wondered how that sounded? How would Mr. Higgins have noted Peter's way of sounding like Jesus? If only someone had jotted it down we could all have copied it and imitated the Lord! But no one did. It remains an enigma!
But something in Peter the fisherman must have changed from walking around with the Master for almost three years. Something in his vocabulary must have been affected, something must have indicated that he sounded like Jesus, otherwise that comment would not have been made.
I sometimes wonder what I sound like. I don't like listening to any recordings of my preaching nor like to watch any DVD or video. I never liked watching me act on film either. It is such a vulnerable state - to watch yourself perform.
The performance demands the unveiling of a soul and that moment is intimate: it is you and the crowd, or if it is a film, you and the camera. Then it is over. To watch it again is embarrassing to say the least and the very core of the performance lies in the self-forgetfulness of the moment. You almost become someone else in order to reveal your heart. You perform.
I have been called to Perform The Word of God as a prophetic actor. Sometimes, while I am preaching I totally forget where I am and get completely honest with my audience about deep laying issues. In order to illustrate a truth I often forget myself and afterwards, when I think of all I've done, I cringe! I wonder if I should rather stop preaching and go back to acting, but then I remember the vow I made in Switzerland and the vow I made when Yvette was born in Sunnybank, Australia.
Many people say they see themselves when I act certain things out. Some say they heard the Lord or saw the Lord in me. That is the ultimate. I don't know how to perform the Lord or sound like Him, so He must have shown up somewhere during the Performing of His Word - maybe only in their imagination or in their mind, I don't know. I cannot control this appearance or revelation. If I could it would not be the Lord, would it? If I could switch it on or off I would be the magician and I could then display the Lord whenever I choose. That would be a form of witchcraft and spiritism.
Peter did not know when they would see the Lord in Him. Unfortunately it was in his worst moment of denying Christ three times before the cock crew, according to Jesus' prophetic warning to him. He went out and wept bitterly that he did not live up to the moment. But that is the difference between him and Judas Iscariot. Instead of weeping and seeking forgiveness Judas went and hung himself. He was too proud to admit a mistake.
Peter made mistakes, he was rebuked in front of the other disciples, he said the wrong things at the wrong times, he cut of Malchus' ear when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden and Jesus had to heal it and put it back on! He deserted Jesus and followed at a distance. He was not near the cross like John. He went back to fishing...back to his old ways...until Jesus showed up again and gave him three chances to repent from the three denials.
Then Jesus gave him a three fold commission: feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my lambs!

Peter chose to change. He waitied for power from on high and became the first person to preach under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and 3 000 people got converted to Christianity from Judaism!

Eventually people not only saw Jesus in Peter they tried to get into Peter's shadow to get healed by Jesus! Amazing tansition! He not only sounded like Jesus, but acted like Him as well. When they were arrested the chief priests took notice of him and John that they had been with Jesus. They were unlearned fishermen, but they had been with Jesus!

That is the key to change! That is the key to Reform! That is what this apostolic reformation is all about! The Spirit intimated to me, ' reform to be conformed to the image of Christ!' That is how we are going to change the world. When each one of us desires to spend more time with Jesus and to conform to the image of God's Firstborn Son, we are going to sound like Him, act like Him and people are going to try to get into our shadows to get healed by Him.

Can a blogspot change the world? Yes it can! Translate this into any given language and send it out to the world! You have my permission! I Andries Jacobus Pelser, known as Andre, give you permission to translate these words into your language and distribute it for the glory of God.

We can change the world

My favourite group of all time Crosby, Stills and Nash (CS&N) sang ' We can change the world' in Graham Nash's song about Chicago. It starts off with, ' so your brother's bound and gagged and they tied him to a chair, would you please come to chicago just to sing, in a land that is known as freedom how can such a thing be fair, won't you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring, we can change the world, re-arrange the world, its dying...to get better!'
How can we change the world with blog spaces? How can we communicate reforms in society, reforms in hearts and minds, is it a shot in the dark, a voice in the wilderness, or just shadow boxing, everyone trying their best to express their feelings, like a radio announcer hoping somebody out there is listening and not knowing if there is an audience!
Unfortunately CS&N spoke out against all rules and regulations ('who needs them?') in their song about changing the world. One has to remember that they were from the Woodstock Love and Freedom Hippie Generation that promoted free sex and drugs - that is the kind of world they wanted and which their songs inform their fans about, ' if you can't be with the one you love, love the one your with' (Stephen Stills).
So although they are my favourite group, their kind of new world order is something I have distanced myself from. Their gospel is not the Gospel I preach. So although I enjoyed their high riding harmonies and their unique sound on the guitars, I cannot agree with their philosophy.
We already know that free sex and drugs have almost destroyed, not changed, the world.
I will write more later - off to school to watch Hilton swim and ride a box cart!

What can I do for you?

Bob Dylan on his Saved Album sings, ' You have given me everything, what can I do for you?' It is a reminder of what Saul asked Jesus when he was knocked of his religious high horse on his way to Damascus to kill Christians who followed Christ, to drag them out of their homes, imprison them and approving their stoning like he did with the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Imagine his surprise when Jesus said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, and then Jesus said, it is hard for you to kick against the goads!
You goad cattle to go into the dire straits of a cattle dip! Goads are sharp pointed sticks that prod you in the right direction.
Here was Saul with written permission from the Sanhedrin to destroy the first church and he was thinking he was doing God a favour. But when Jesus appeared to him, he was struck blind (temporarily) by the blindening light and he fell off his horse and heard a voice speak to him, because he could not see.
His first reaction was to ask, ' who are you Lord?' Then Jesus told him who He was. His second question was, ' What can I do for you?'
Either it was a wonderful Jewish salesman speaking or someone scared out of his wits, or it must have been his trained habit to respond in a similar fashion.
I once asked a friend of my father who was a very successful book keeper in Krugersdorp, Oom Joubert, what made him so prosperous. He said, 'Andre, when someone walks through that door I think, what can I do for that person!' Here lies the secret: he did not think, 'how much money can I make from this person!'
It is the thought behind the words that give weight to them. Many times I have walked into shops or restaurants and walked out again, even though I was asked, ' Can I help you?' Just because the words were insincere and empty.
In South Africa waiters and waitresses normally do it just for the tips. They do not get salaries, so it is a cheap way to staff the restaurant by hiring students. They are all studying to become something else than waiters. Their hearts are not in what they are doing. They will tell you so. Then why be served by them in the first place?
In Portugal, even in the tiniest sidewalk restaurant, old men, dressed smartly in bow tie and waist coat (black) will ask you if they could help you and actually mean it with all their hearts because they are plying their trade and wish to do nothing else: this is their lives! What a difference it makes to be served by professionals!
In life we do a lot of things and try a lot of things, but when we can truly say, 'what can I do for you?' and mean it, we will find our destiny and enjoy a purposeful life - instead of seeking our purpose with five easy steps as some books and seminars sell it to you!

From my Window

From my window at Hotel Costa de Prata in Figeuira da Foz, Portugal, I could see the coast, the fishing harbour, a large open space with cobble stones, a few parked cars and an ancient stone building, almost in ruins, but with a notice of hope: a company has bought it to restore it! What a message lies there!
It is fenced in and secured with special boardwalks for pedestrians in rue Eugeneiro Silva. Most people walk past without giving it the eye. It is nothing to look at, really! The windows are all broken and the roof is rusted, the plaster work has been eroded and fallen off revealing the raw stonework underneath. The iron rails in front of the little balconies are brittle with rust and the marble slats around the window panes and door frames are riddled with holes and cracks.
There is no one inside. There are no birds nesting in the roof or crevices. The building in its dilapedated state is utterly forsaken...its former glory totally forgotten.
In the silence of the October morning Ihear the old building whisper, 'I once was a magnificent edifice...' but the stifled words are shut off from its mute mouth, the door space has been cemented in. Inside is nothing but dirt and dust - its not fit for human occupation now.
But there is a sign outside that says, 'under construction'! This is a sign of hope, a note of faith, a light in the darkness.
Someone saw potential in this old ruin on the beach front. There is someone who is prepared to go to great expenses and trouble to restore it to its former usefulness.
Paul wrote an epistle to Philemon in which he tells him about his former slave Onesimus. Onesimus means ' useful', but Onesimus stole from Philemon and the slave was imprisoned. Paul was innocently imprisoned for the Gospel's sake and found Onesimus in prison. He made a convert of him and sent him back at the time of his release to his former master, Philemon, with a letter from Paul.
In the letter Paul reminded Philemon that the latter owed him his life and that he wanted him to take Onesimus back, not just as a servant, but now as a brother in Christ. He that once was useless to you has become useful in the ministry! Paul offered to pay Philemon anything Onesimus might still owe him. Then Paul ended the letter by saying he will soon visit Philemon as well.
All of us had our lives ruined by sin. Our usefulness waned until we were no longer of any use to anybody. We were cast out on the ash heap of life. No one paid attention to us any longer. People walked right past us without noticing our need. People avoided us like the plague.
But then the Master builder, Jesus Christ, in his mercy took notice of us and looked beyond our ruined state and saw potential in us that no one else could see!
He fenced us in with his love and began the reconstruction process to repair the damage that sin had caused.
Perhaps there is a life out there that needs that sign of hope to be put onto the building!
Paul pleaded with Philemon to receive Onesimus ' as my own heart. he was once unprofitable for you but now he will be profitable for both you and me. For perhaps he departed a while for this purpose: that you might receiv him forever! If he has wronged you or owes you anythng put that on my account!'
Jesus put all our wrong doing and sins on His account and paid for it on the cross with his own blood - without blood there is no remission of sins according to the spiritual law. Here is the good news: God has accepted his offer to purchase your old ruined life so that He might rebuild it again...
Can you see what I saw out of my hotel window in Figeuria?

Love minus zero

In Castlecary I caught a program on Dylan on TV and listened how people described him. They showed The Newport Festival, The Madhouse (a Pinteresque play in which Dylan performed the lead role in Britain) and snatches of footage not seen before.
This morning in Birmingham Graham got me onto BBC Music where they feature a lot of Dylan's music and even his own radio programme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/bobdylan/tvradio/
He sang: 'My love she speaks in silence...with no ideals of violence... at dime stores and gas stations people talk about situations...the night blows cold and rainy my love sits at my window like a raven with a broken wing...' (from Love Minus Zero). Images flow like water in Bob Dylan's songs and remain in the mindbanks of listeners for a life time. They once asked him how he remembers all his songs and he said, a song walks by itself: it is like a footpath in a field, once you find it again you just walk along the path. But he must have an amazing memory!
When he received an honoury doctorate degree for his contribution to the English language at a university graduation he wrote the song, ' The Locusts sang' describing how he wanted to get out of that stuffy place and how the locusts the dark hills of Dakota were calling him away. He described the pomp and circumstance of the academic occasion as follows: 'when I stepped up to the stage to pick up my degree, the man next to me, his head was exploding, I was praying the pieces wouldn't fall on me!'
He sings about ' Hazel, with your dirty brown hair, I would want to be seen with you anywhere!' and then of another love of his life, ' You angel you, I've got you under my skin'.
When Nola and I were invited onto the creative team of Youth For Christ in Johannesburg (in our young days!) we were asked to produce a night of Dylan's music because it became public knowledge that Dylans was now saved and he produced Gospel albums for Atlantic Records. So we did a lot of research and watched some old movies of him and The Band with Robbie Robertson touring through America and we read interview after interview in music magazines like Rolling Stone in libraries (there was no internet in those days to surf around) and put together a one and a half hour programme that we performed in the Old Rosebank Cinema in Orange Grove that became a church (Reg Bendixon, I think was the pastor's name). YFC posted the following on the Bill Board outside the building: ' Dylan Sat 7pm'
By the time we got there we couldn't get in! The place was jam-packed! In fact the stage was full of teenagers and we hardly had space to stand when performing. They were sitting around our feet. I had special front teeth made for the occassion and wore a curly wig and sunglasses and a white hat, but I couldn't sing with the false teeth over my own teeth, so I did without it.
They had to turn many people away - they all thought it was the real Dylan. At the back of the hall the director of the avant garde Market Theatre, Mannie Mannim, stood there and watched the whole performance. Afterwards he squeezed into the dressing-come-prayer-room and introduced himself and asked if we could come and perform it at his theatre. The rest is history! We performed it for the next two years around the county with our own band, The Road Band, and had tours up and down the country, to Durban, Cape Town, Kimberley! Aje our first born son grew up on stage in a way! He had his own little guitar, cowboy hat and boots. (When I worked for Pacofs as an actor he and Nola also toured with me from town to town and sat on stage while I performed!)
One night a man came backstage in the Market Theatre after a performance with tears streaming down his cheeks saying, ' I want to know this Jesus you are singing about!' We prayed with him. This happened everywhere we performed the show. We didn't make money and hardly covered cost, but we covered a lot of ground and reached a lot of people throughout our country. The show was entitled, ' Forever Young' and here are some of the words I remember:
'May God bless and keep you always, may your wishes all come true, may you always do for others and my others do for you, may you build a stairway to the stars and climb on every wrung, and may you stay for every young!'
When they asked Dylan about his faith when he no longer produced Gospel albums he said, 'I've said everything I wanted to say in those albums! I'm a song writer. I write songs. If you want to know what I believe, just listen to my songs!' At one live concert a few years ago he opened the evening with these words, 'Everyone has a hero. My hero is Jesus Christ!' and then sang ' You gotta serve somebody!'
A good idea would be to listen to his Gospel music and find out what he believes and then make up your own mind. He never minces his words - not even when he explains how to get saved!

I learned my lesson well

There is only one place in the world where the phrase, 'Firth of the Fourth' makes sense: Scotland. A firth is a bay! Scotland is so steeped in history that it would take a life time to relate it all. But there were many interesting anecdotes I picked up in my third visit to this beautiful land with its high black mountains, green flowing hills and valleys and a people with strange accents (of course our accents are strange to them again.) The same word and name could mean two different things in different countries!

Glaswegians are people who live in Glasgow! To us it would means something about glass! Dunoon is a popular place to visit in Scotland, to us in Cape Town it is a squatter village. Sutherland is a wild and wide place but to us in South Africa it is known as the place where all the observatories are located. Elgin in the Cape is known for its fruit, but in Scotland it is Macbeth area, where the witches operated from. Orkney is a little mining town in the West Transvaal, but to the Scots it is the place with precipitous cliffs dropping to the sea leading to the low hills of Orkney, near the Arctic circle.

There are many valuable lessons to be learned in the history of Scotland.

The first town on the border between England and Scotland is called Gretna Green. Here many runaway lovers from England got married by a blacksmith who performed the ceremony over his anvil and tapped his anvil to announce them as man and wife! According to English law young lovers have to be 18 to get married, but in Scotland 16 was the marrying age. They would elope and get the smith to marry them, being pursued by angry parents, of course! Parents struggle to understand the chemistry between young lovers! We need to have faith to allow God to bring people together in his way and his time or else we will experience Gretna Greens as well!

Common Riding is something the Scots do in summer: they ride along the borders on horseback to recall the days of the great raids in the moors! What do you and I remember about our nation's past? Is there something you want to commemorate? They turned evil raids into a pleasant past time for this generation.
The body snatchers were people in Edinburgh who dug up coffins to sell corpses to Medical Researchers who needed to dissect the bodies. This trade fell into disrepute when the merchants started murdering people to sell fresh bodies to the Medics! Greed makes murderers of us all - when the only driving force in life is to make a profit, all morals and ethics get thrown out the window!

John Gray's grave is famous because his terrier, Bobby, watched over his grave for fourteen years after his death. A statue has been erected to commemorate Bobby's loyalty to his master in Candlemaker's Row. Loyalty is something we need to restore in our relationships and our attitudes towards one another and to the cause we give ourselves to. Let us learn this lesson from the little dog, Bobby!
The coat of arms of Glasgow depicts a salmon. It refers to one of St. Mungo's miracles. The queen of Cadzow (now Hamilton) gave her wedding ring to her favourite courtier. The king noticed it and stole the rign from the courtier and threw it into the river Clyde. Then he demanded the rign back from her on pain of death. In despair the queen went to St Mungo and asked for help. He sent a man to the river and bring the first fish he caught back it to him. In the mouth of the fish there was the missing ring! Sometimes we also throw away what we most treasure and we need a miracle to recover it! But, miracles do happen - so do not despair.

The Clyde was a narrow, shallow river until they widened and deepened it to make Glasgow the second city in the Empire because of the new possibilities of trade and ship building! The Queen Mary and both the QE I & II were built in these shipyards. Perhaps we need to deepen and widen our outlook on life in order to be more productive and to enrich our lives!

Sterling Bridge was the place where both Brave heart William Wallace and Robert the Bruce defeated the English armies to bring independence to Scotland in their respective generations in 1297 and 1314. We have to serve our generations like David according to the will of God for our lives to set people free from sin and religious bondage! Let's be brave hearts for God!

Aunty Raper

Here I go again! Since I was 12 and old aunty Raper came to our house in 65 Gardiner Street, Brakpan, I have literally lived to fulfill a one line prophecy: 'Young man, you have a calling from God and God will also use you in other lands!'
I looked at Apostle Paul's travels and then drew a world map and traced my travels over the years...it turned out to be a work of modern art! There were too many lines coming and going to other lands! I think Paul would have loved to own a jet of his own! Imagine what he would have done - then again he needed the secluded time in prison to write all the epistles. I wonder if he ever thought that his letters would outlive him by 2000 years?
Luke wrote a thesis to Theophilus to convince him of the reality of Jesus Christ and the work of the Apostles. He never thought it would be part of a bible.
Well, someone said, we are all writing a bible, a chapter every day - say, what is the bible according to you? André's Gospel is just like the bible, I suppose: there are good thing and things I would like to forget as well! It is hard to understand how God can forgive and forget. We struggle to forgive ourselves, let alone other people!
Luckily God sent His Son Jesus Christ to come and feel what it was like to be a human being - with all our faults and inbuilt failure systems! Yet, being human is no longer an excuse for making terrible mistakes and being defeated, because Jesus offers his life when we are willing to deny our old lives and to put our faith in Him.
Faith is a strange thing...the moment you are too much aware of your effort to believe it dissipates the substance of faith! It is in self-forgetfulness that we achieve most things. A mother lifts a car at the scene of an accident to get her little child out from underneath the wreck! Ask her to do that at any other time and she won't be able to do it!
So, when I made my life's travel map, I suddenly became too aware of my effort to fulfill an old prophecy and didn't want to trace my steps any more. When I try to be perfect I make such terrible mistakes that I have to hang my head and confess I need some help!
The bubble of the rest of faith is something that brings success, godly success, without much effort. There is no self-talk involved. When we do everything whole heartedly as unto the Lord, we can do amazing things.
God is able to do all things. He gives us ability to do things. When we use our god-given abilities to do things, He is glorified in us. We glorify the one who created us by doing what he enabled us to do!
My dad was a pilot in the Air Force during WWII. Perhaps I have inherited some of his genes for I simply love to fly. So here I go again - off to Scotland this time, then on to Portugal and then back to London and back home again.
If I try to calculate all the costs involved in all my travels it boggles my mind...how on earth was I able to do it for a life time, never knowing where the money for the next ticket will spring from? Let me not think on't...
Something I love doing, that I have been doing for most of my life, that I am committed to do for the rest of my life as long as I am spared and kept healthy is to go to other lands to spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to help people to be free...to be themselves...as God made them! No longer slaves of systems and manipulation of others!
I prayed in John Knox's prayer room up in his house in Edinburgh the first time I went to Scotland. There is nothing in the room. Just a cement floor. Well, prayer needs no furniture or outward stimulation, it is an inward journey. So before I go to other lands, I go within, and pray and see in the spirit the land I am going to...I view the Promised Land and then go out to conquer...in the Name of the one who sent me with a simply prophecy from an old lady when I was 12. Who would have believed a little boy from Brakpan would have travelled the globe?

The way Jimmy plays!

Listening to Jimmy Smith the Master of the B3 Hammond Organ while blogging takes me back to the first time I went into a record booth at a store, armed with a Jimmy Smith LP under my arm, and putting on those old round leather ear phones, boosting the volume and being transported to another world of music altogether!
The only music I was used to I heard in church, really, because we were not allowed to listen to the Beatles as PK's (Pastor Kids). So the almost guilt that washed over me as I stole away into the booth literally excited me in a way. The Pentecostal church made the road to heaven narrower as what it was meant to be.
When I began playing the organ ala Jimmy Smith people in church complained that I'm playing Jazz in church - as if that was a lethal sin!
Then I discovered Bob Dylan and then you should have heard the religious hypocrites lash out. They even got up and walked out of church when I played and sang my own compositions.
Dear Lord, it was God's mercy that I kept on being a believer, although I also finally walked out of the church, because of the condemnation and the lack of knowledge: every Sunday you were preached guilty and hell was held out in front of your eyes in no uncertain terms and you had to hear, 'what if a truck should run you down, young man, as you leave this church tonight, where will you spend eternity?' It is amazing that preachers never invited 'old men' to make right with God, I mean, given all the odds, who is closer to the edge, the young or the old?
Then we would sing meaningless songs about 'I'll fly away oh glory!' I never quite knew what we were singing about, because the pie-in-the-sky religious hype eventually wore me out so that I went on my own pathway seeking my holy grail.
It wasn't until I ended up in the Arizona desert and discovered the meaning of the words, 'Kingdom of God' that I found peace in my heart and direction for the rest of my life. I was tired of singing 'seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you', and hearing the preachers tell me that you will only inherit the kingdom when you die. So what about the things? What about the things a young man wanted? What used would those things be after I die? It just did not make sense.
But when I worked my way steadily through the bible under the patronage of Dr. Roy M. Gray, the principal at Miracle Valley Bible College, Arizona, I came to Romans 14:17 that explicitly tells us that the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink , but in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. At last I found the kingdom I had been looking for so long: it no longer mattered if I ate halaal or kosher meat, or whether I drank wine or not, the Kingdom of God was on a deeper level - it was within! And what's more, it was my Heavenly Father's good pleasure to give me the kingdom - I did not have to forcibly grab it from anyone! Phew! Whatarelief!
So, as Jimmy, the late Jimmy Smith, I might add, plays us out with Wes Montgommery on Les Paul guitar, I am so grateful that I can listen with peace in my heart to music I really love, without guilt or condemnation, and know that I am right with God through faith in Christ Jesus'complete sacrifice for our sins on the cross of Calvary! This give me joy in my heart and I will not trade it for anything else in life! This is life in the Kingdom of God - on earth!
This is my prayer for anyone who cares to read my blog: may you enter the reality of knowing the kingdom of God and finding the things you love being added to you, in this life, and in the life to come, eternal fellowship with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and with all the spirits of just men and women who were perfected! May He perfect that which concerns you and I - today - and may we be instruments to extend His kingdom in the hearts of men, women and children as we go about our daily affairs.
I just love the way Jimmy plays!...

Fast Pace Change

‘Six months ago we would not have believed it was possible to run a DIY computer course on your own computer, with our Head Quarters in America and our software technology in Cape Town!’ One of our IT guru’s confessed to me at our BAND OF BROTHERS monthly meeting at Harvester Reformational Church.

It seems that all things have become possible in the IT business – anything goes! Cell phones are so advanced that they might soon replace laptops or perhaps there is something else being designed as I am writing that will make cell phones completely obsolete within two years! Wireless communication has taken on an ID of its own!

Changes are coming so fast at us that it is hard to keep up! It is like travelling through space: there is so much to discover but we are going to fast!

In the old days we used to speak of ships passing at night – the romantic notion of two slow moving objects with dim lit decks filled with lonely passengers all hoping to find their wealth or happiness in another country, another place.

But today everything has been speeding up – fast and furiously!

When teenagers watch a movie, they remark: ‘it’s so slow…it takes forever to get going!’ So the Bourne Identity trilogy with its neck breaking speed and hand held camera shots capture the attention of the youth because the pace never lets down and the editing is in touch with the modern stressful lifestyle of constantly being bombarded with images and info and having to make quick decisions all the time until there is a blow up or a collapse!

Everything in our age has to be a convenience before people purchase the product! Tokyo’s brand Uniqlo has brought fashion retailing into the age of the convenience store.. It sells nothing but T shirts packed into clear plastic tubes and stacked like so many cans of soda. The store is named UT – and nothing costs more than $12!

The concept of an Internet Café is already outdated! Some people have never even used one! Today the Geek Terminal Restaurant in Singapore you get a laptop to use with a battery charger and any power device you require and power supply sockets are within easy reach of every customer. Wall mounted flat screens display websites and banner ads and anything you see you can buy because the restaurant doubles as a sales agent for Apple and TV makers in Malaysia. Oh, by the way, you can also order food in the restaurant! The next restaurant to open is in Kuala Lumpur and then Dubai and London. The mere provision of a wi-fi isn’t going to cut it any more! (Time, Aug 20, 2007)

Sweden now has one sauna for every five people in Helsinki, Finland! Sauna Bars, Sauna Laundry Café’s, restaurants such as Eatz, and Baker’s night club offers private lounges for 8 people all require reservations at $28 a head for two hours. Even Bowling alleys have saunas in Helsinki!

Just look around you – see what changes fast – and see the pace of change in your neighbourhood as a sign of the times we are living in.

In this fast paced life of constant change…there is an anchor: our faith in an unchangeable God! When everything else changes, He remains the same!

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever! That is why we can anchor our hopes and our faith on Him. He is always the same! There is no shadow of change with Him. We are securely connected to Him. He doesn’t constantly demand more fees for higher upgrades. He has already paid the full price for a life long membership in His Household of Faith where there are constant supplies of everything we need for this life and for the life hereafter. Only a fool will say in his heart, there is no God!

Then again, living at Sunset Beach, Cape Town, I see the sunsets, every night, and I say to myself, (Sachmo), ‘what a wonderful world’ and I see the ships on the horizon at night passing each other with dim lit lanterns on their decks and yellow dots for cabin lights and I hear the sound of the fog horn in the distance and see the beam of light from Milnerton Lighthouse and the one from Mouillie Point and I think to myself, nothing has really changed much…

Clean up time

"I can't go to the toilet at school!" Hilton remarked. I thought at first that he had a problem but he assured me that the toilets were in such a terrible state that they cannot be used! It's hard to believe that a school with so many sporting facilities and excellent staff and academic records do not pay attention to the most basic human needs.
When I questioned the vice-head about it he assured me that it actually is a problem - a huge problem and they do not know what to do about it. Two years ago a lot of money was spent on repairs, but the boys break the seats, the break the urinals and the towel rails off the wall, the mess the place up and have no respect for the facilities...and they issue is addressed from time to time at assembly.
"Why don't you give the boys toilet duty to clean the place up - then they will soon keep it in a decent order!" One of the mothers suggested.
"You don't know how parents will react to a suggestion like that!"
Well, perhaps the parents need to come and do the cleaning up after the mess their boys make at school! There should also be a maintenance team and procedure in place to keep it in order.

Why is it like that in public places? What is wrong with people? What is wrong with boys and girls - the one mother assured us it was just as bad at girl's schools!

The problem lies with our values: we are all easily taken up with the outward impressiveness of things, but the inner reality is often ignored...so the school will spend a lot of money to upgrade the entrance so that the first impression is good, but the toilets remain a problem.

Isn't this exactly what Jesus referred to when he rebuked the Pharisees for being so particular about the outside of a cup but inside it is filthy? Isn't this an indictment against humanity that pays so much attention to the appearance of things rather that the inner beauty and the things of the spirit?

Paul warned that terrible times would come in the latter days because of three reasons: people would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money and lovers of pleasure. As a resutl of these three priorities everything else would be sadly neglected! No wonder the preaching of the cross has once again become foolishness to most preachers - they have to preach motivational messages to tickle the ears of the people, to gather teachers to teach what people would like to hear, to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the human ego, instead of crudifying the self-life with Christ so that the life of Christ may be seen...

Dr. Roy M. Gray told me once at Miracle Valley Bible College in Arizona, where I went to study the bible, that a person's real character can be measured by how that person views the Cross of Jesus Christ...If such a great sacrifice does not move someone to respond with gratitude, what else would? People are basically ungrateful and can never get enough of what they want. But when we have crucified the flesh with its lusts, we step into another lifestyle of living for a higher purpose, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the establisment of His kingdom in the hearts of men, women and children.

Maybe it is time to clean up our act together with the effort the school will make to repair the toilets - but more than that , pehaps it is time to teach our children to be grateful again, by setting and example for them! Maybe it is time that people pray a prayer of thanksgiving at every meal to acknowledge the hand of God in providing for them in their basic needs. Maybe it is time to learn to give rather than to live to get. Maybe we need to pay our tithes to the church and tax to the governmnet and not find reasons not to do so. Maybe we need to appreciate each other again and make room for mistakes, but to learn from our mistakes...

Maybe prayer and meditation in the Bible should become priority in our homes again and replace the TV as the principle law giver and standard for our families. Maybe we ought to be thankful just for being alive today...It is a good thing to give thanks - that is the will of God.

I heard the news today O boy

When the Beatles sang their song, 'I heard the news today, oh boy!' it was pretty tame in those years to hear what was going on in the world. Since then things have increased with a speed! There are so many wars and rumours of wars, that it is hard to keep up with it all today. Violence and corruption have escalated to an alarming extent and the natural disasters are spelling the end-time in such clear signals that only fools would fail to pay attention!
The inconvenient truths as they claim are based on global warming statistics and people are scared about all that might transpire in the near future. Terrorism is making normal life impossible and religious fanatics actually seek heroic exists out of this life - only problem is they always want to take out as many people with them as they possibly can!
The result is basic: people are living one day at a time: I might die any moment so I might as well enjoy today! This type of attituce is often found in times of war. Licenciousness is something people explain to justify actions they would otherwise have ignored. Anarachy grows out of licenciousness, people become lawless...
Where there is no vision, people perish. The Lord laments in His Word, 'My people perish from a lack of knowledge!' And yet at the same time there are prophetic utterances that in the end-time knowledge shall increase! We have to ask ourselves, what kind of knowledge do we lack and what kind of knowledge is increasing in our time. And then we have to make a concerted effort to absorb the right kind of knowledge and avoid the kind that simply wastes our time!
The public media is hell-bent on sensationalism to sell their newspapers and keep people glued to the TV ('Don't go away - we have more for you in a moment!')
What is the role of apostles and prophets of the Lord Jesus Christ in these alarming times? What is the role of every believer? How do we manage our lives and stay in touch with reality in the midst of a world that seems to be spinning out of control?
There is a simple way: there is a short and easy method of prayer that Madame Guyon prescribed to her disciples. When you open your heart to God in prayer after meditating in the Bible (and you must first believe that it is the inpsired Word of God!) then you can simply allow the presence of God to cleanse you from all the dirt and filth of the world, and to commune with you in such a way that your heart will be uplifted and encouraged, and you will sense the comfort only the Holy Spirit can bring!
Try it...now. It does not have to be long...5 minutes is tremendously refreshing!